Turley: Everything About Trump Hush Money Case Is ‘Legally Absurd’

OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.

Fox News legal analyst and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley believes that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is wading into uncharted territory.

During an interview on Fox News, Turley spoke about jury selection for Bragg’s case beginning Monday, which involves allegations of a “hush money” scheme and cover-up.

Turley called Bragg’s case against Trump “legally absurd.”

Fox host Maria Bartiromo kicked the segment off by asking: “I’m gonna put up this letter, this is from Stormy Daniels that President Trump posted, I know you’ve seen this, it says, ‘Stormy Daniels writes, ‘The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2016, 2017 and now again 2018. I’m not denying this affair because I was paid hush money. I’m denying the affair because it never happened,’ writes Stormy Daniels. Sir?”

“Yeah, everything about this case is, in my view, legally absurd. You know, this case is basically a state misdemeanor that had run out under the statute of limitations,” Turley began.

“Bragg was forced, after he declined for a long time to bring this charge, to do so. His predecessor rejected it. So they took a dead misdemeanor and bootstrapped it into effectively trying a federal crime. But the federal crime here under election law was rejected under the Department of Justice,” Turley continued.

Turley added, “They did not feel that this should be charged. So you have this crazy case that’s going to go forward and it’s going to turn on the testimony of people like Michael Cohen. And Michael Cohen just recently had a judge call him a serial perjurer, and he is going to appear as the center of this case.”

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Trump has issued a big warning just hours before his trial begins in New York.

Trump used his Truth Social platform to set the stage for Monday’s events and paint a picture of how things look today compared to just four years ago.

“Just four years ago I was a very popular and successful President of the United States, getting more votes than any sitting President in history,” he wrote. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be in Criminal Court, before a totally conflicted Judge, a Corrupt Prosecutor, a Legal System in CHAOS, a State being overrun by violent crime and corruption, and Crooked Joe Biden’s henchmen ‘Rigging the System’ against his Political Opponent, ME!”

“I will be fighting for myself but, much more importantly, I will be fighting for our Country,” he wrote. “Election Interference like this has never happened in the USA before and, hopefully, will never happen again. We are now a Nation in serious Decline, a Failing Nation, but we will soon be a Great Nation Again. November 5th will be the most important day in the History of the United States.”

He concluded with slightly more enthusiasm, going back to all caps to write, “MAGA2024! SEE YOU TOMORROW.”

Monday will mark the start of the jury selection process for Trump’s trial, which is related to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into purported hush-money payments made to Trump before the 2016 presidential election.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024 is on trial for the first time in his election year in New York City. For every charge, Trump has entered a not-guilty plea.

Juan Merchan, a Manhattan judge, is overseeing the proceedings. Because of Merchan’s Democratic affiliation and the judge’s supposed “hostility” toward the presumed Republican nominee for president in 2024, Trump’s legal team had filed a motion to have Merchan removed from the trial.

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In April of last year, Bragg filed 34 first-degree charges against Trump for falsifying business records. The charges also related to purported hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

DA Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

“During the election, Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged in the indictment last year. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

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